This may come as a surprise for many throughout America and the rest of the world–who may see Kansas City as just a cowtown–but we boast one of the most storied histories of culture in all of middle America.

Given what we’re all learning from the Niantic Project about portals and exotic matter, we here in the city known as ‘The Heart of America’ have been challenged to reexamine the intersection of humanity’s mortal and immortal aspects, of deciding whether to fight the mundane reality of day-to-day existence by transforming our world through art and high ideals, or whether to give in to the feeling of comfort the staid and never-changing brings. We stand upon the precipice, and now we must decide either to cling to what was or to embrace what may yet be.

[decodeAdLeft]

And what better a place? Kansas City’s history encompasses the jump-off point for America’s westward expansion, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, a United States president who came up through local politics (Harry Truman), and the heyday of underground jazz culture during Prohibition. A decade later we led the way in the synthesis of the jump blues sound that was the forefather of rock and roll. We have over 200 fountains, second in the world only to Rome. The city itself is a marvel of civic planning, boasting more boulevards than any city except Paris. Our collection of art deco buildings is amongst the world’s largest.

Considering all this, one might well say the shapers have long had a fondness for this city. Sadly, the Resistance agents in Kansas City managed to create the first level 8 portals. But were the Enlightened agents of the Kansas City Ingress community going to stand by and let our proud city have its evolutionary clock turned back by a bunch of Luddite smurfs?

Hell no.

The time was set and the planning done. Agents had prepped for the meetup and deployment. Hundreds of hours of work was about to blaze forth a bright, green light. Wishing each other a good sleep, we settled in for our night’s rest.

All except for one.

At the stroke of midnight a lone agent headed out into the field. His goal? To smash blue’s highest-level and most frequently-held portals in hopes the Resistance would awake Saturday morning to find their inboxes glutted with destruction notifications and so delay their response to what was to be an historic accomplishment. His other goal was to ensure that the rest of the day would go smoothly for the big operation, making sure that all the targeted spots were claimed and that resonator placement was ideal.

Meanwhile, a collection of Enlightened agents, many of whom had carefully hid their attainment of level 8 status, gathered in the early morning light at the Liberty Memorial, our nation’s monument to those who gave their service and lives in defense of liberty in the Great War. It’s not the most comfortable place to be in freezing weather, perched high above downtown and with an omnipresent north wind whipping by. But with a view of the endless horizon, the solemn limestone tower was by far the most appropriate place for Enlightened to begin to make its mark.

At 10 a.m., coffee in hand, our agents began to amass at the top of the steps. Weeks of grinding AP and hoarding resonators were about to pay off. The subterfuge and deception were finally over. It was time to pull the curtain back on the true strength of the Enlightened in America’s Heartland.

One by one–and then with increasing fervor–level 8 resonators sprung to life upon the cold stone. First one, then 3, then 7, then 14 portals bloomed along the length of the Memorial Mall. Having hoped to avoid detection by upgrading already held portals, the ruse did not last long. A couple of savvy Resistance agents noticed our work and congratulated us.

But what did blue have to fear, after all? They had accomplished this same feat two weeks before. Little did they know how deep the Enlightened inventory was. The team moved out. Engulfed in the anonymity of a Saturday drive to the airport, we headed out. Most citizens don’t realize that Kansas City’s MCI Economy Parking is awash in XM. Thirty historical markers line the otherwise dreary sea of concrete where blue busses trawl among the commuters and vacationers shuttling to their next ports of call. This is where Enlightened struck next. Two hours later the MCI lots gleamed a radiant beacon of Enlightenment into the heavens. Staying only a few minutes to gather more supplies, we moved on.

As the weather warmed and the sun grew braver, the team moved from Missouri into Kansas. The next target was the Legends Mall, a sprawling outdoor entertainment complex dedicated to Kansas’s many historical contributors. Among the Saturday crowd with their mochas and Burberry bags, the Enlightened created 13 more portals. As the last ones were being finished off, notifications of enemy movement finally started to hit the scanners. A full

4 hours after the first level 8 deployment, the Resistance had finally come out to play. A renewed sense of urgency took hold as the Comms chatter rattled off check-ins. “Need two more on Mark Twain.” “Finishing at Cabella’s!” “Heading out now. Upgrade and move!” Our eyes in the sky tracked enemy movements, recorded our accomplishments and doled out encouragement. Portals completed, it was back to the highways.

The best was yet to come.

Kansas City’s Plaza District is internationally known for its beauty. Modeled after the classic, open plazas in Seville, Spain, the Country Club Plaza was opened in 1923. What most do not know is that it was once dubbed ‘Nichols’s Folly’ after Kansas City real estate magnate J.C. Nichols acquired the land and began building. Even a hundred years ago, precursors of the Resistance were saying the spot was ugly and untenable. But Nichols must have heard the call of the XM, because he succeeded in transforming the dreary spot next to Brush Creek into a wealth of fountains, statues, shops and restaurants where thousands of people’s lives intersect every day.

As such, it is home to one of the densest portal concentrations on the planet–43 portals within less than one square mile. On a typical day it’s hard not to find an Ingress agent at work among the shoppers. This, of course, was our pièce de résistance. As our scanners blared out the carrion call of blue’s destructive response to our activities, we finished our day’s work. The smurfs were still half a city behind us. Joyful but tired, in ones and twos we finally began drifting back into the ebb and flow of “the rest of the world”. Six hours after taking the wraps off the majority of our level 8 agent roster, we had done it. We had made a bold statement about our commitment to the Enlightened cause and the future we want for our city, our nation and our world. All by setting a new record for the number of level 8 portals created in one day.